


Roll Another Number for the Road

by NoPunchesLeftToRollWith



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, Heartbreak, KIND of canon, Piper and Jason deserved a better break up, Piper and percy smoke, because they are teens, like a lot, pre-toa, they swear, they're such stoners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:42:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24106147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoPunchesLeftToRollWith/pseuds/NoPunchesLeftToRollWith
Summary: Piper comes to Percy for some advice when she breaks up with JasonorPiper and Jason's breakup deserved more backstory than we got
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson (background) - Relationship, Jason Grace/Piper McLean
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	Roll Another Number for the Road

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from the 1975 song, "Roll Another Number for the Road," by Neil Young

If there was one thing he hadn’t expected to miss from Camp as he entered the school year, it was definitely Piper’s Grade-A weed. In the past month, he had gotten rather spoiled, what with her being from a legal state, rich, and having a famous father. Percy sighed loudly as he thought about having to go back exclusively to his pen. Not that he didn’t love his darling Hypnos, which he had originally purchased because it made him laugh out loud at the thought of Clovis, and also kept him feeling weirdly connected to the Olympian world during the school year. But nothing could beat Piper’s pure, clean, unadulterated strains of Indica and Sativa. In New York, there were certainly dealers, but he could never be too sure that they weren’t laced, so he mostly stuck to his trusty pen. 

But, he thought, he was not going to despair on the last night and was definitely going to appreciate these last few puffs more than any other inanimate object than he had before. He gripped Annabeth’s hand as the snuck over to the Climbing Wall, the unexpected trio’s smoke spot of choice. It was perfect because the lava was turned off at night, Harpies couldn’t fly up that high, and no one would expect anyone to be stupid enough to go up there and chill on the very precarious ledge. However, Percy happened to think he was a special type of stupid, and Annabeth had agreed that it was the most logical spot for them. Piper could care less about where they smoked, but Annabeth and Percy had a rather important persona to uphold, while Piper did not. She could afford to be caught, whereas they could most decidedly not. Not that Percy really cared, most of the old-timers knew that he and Annabeth had become fierce stoners at the ripe age of 14, but his reputation with Chiron and the new campers did give him special privileges that he would miss dearly. 

When they reached the base of the wall, Percy, ever the gentlemen, allowed Annabeth to make the climb first. Yes, it had the added benefit to totally check out her ass as she climbed, something he would never pass up. When they reached the top, Piper was, surprisingly, already there. She extended her arm to the pair with a smirk on her face, where a small silver tin rested in her palm,

“I have a treat for us tonight,” she said excitedly.

“Oh really?” Annabeth said, “Do tell, Piper dearest,”

“Blueberry,” she said mischievously,

“Oh, my gods!” Percy exclaimed, “Holy shit please tell me you aren’t joking because I may fall over this cliff right now if you are,”

“Piper, how expensive was that? Seriously, I know for a fact there aren’t any dispensaries or growers that carry it anywhere close,” Annabeth inquired.

“Well it’s exotic my friends,” at Annabeth’s resounding glare she decided to be truthful, “Okay, it’s from New Hampshire, but I have contacts, so I got an eighth for only $70,” she finished, rather proud of her business skills.

Percy was done with the logistics by this point, he wanted to smoke his favorite strain with his friends one last time for the summer. Therefore he decided to take matters into his own hands and expertly pick up a pre-rolled joint, flicking on his lighter and grazing the tip. He chivalrously handed it off to Annabeth, and then another to Piper, and finally doled one out to himself. And for the next few hours of the night, into the rising sun, he relaxed with his friends one last time until the next summer.

* * *

  
It would be much sooner than originally thought that he would get to smoke with Piper again. He received an Iris Message just a few days into November, from a tearful daughter of Aphrodite. 

“Can I come to your apartment this weekend,” she asked, “I’m coming to camp anyways, but I get it if you’re busy,”

“No, no, no,” he protested, “Of course you can come, Annabeth is at an Architecture Convention in Pennsylvania for the weekend though,”

“It’s fine, I-” she broke off, “thank you,” and she sliced through the shimmering mirage, effectively ending their conversation.

If Percy had been paying attention, he would have noticed how broken up the IM had been, and how it had begun to fizzle out before Piper even ended the connection, but he was far more concerned with what was causing his friend to be so upset.

The weekend came, and so did a buzz for his apartment. He knew who to expect before he finished making his way down the stairwell. There she stood, her choppy brown hair longer than it had been in the summer, and her the whites of her eyes rimmed with red, which contrasted deeply with the purple circles just below them.

“My mom made you a grilled cheese,” he said in greeting, extending the Tupperware out to her.

“Tell your mom thank you for me,” she smiled at him, “Can we go somewhere, I don’t know my way around,” she admitted.

“Of course,” he said, “I know just the place,”

They walked down the block, past his and Annabeth’s favorite spot, which, no offense Piper, was their thing, and he wasn’t giving that up. Instead, he continued onto the next block and stopped after looking at a building that was being renovated into a hotel, or maybe an apartment complex. The streets were filled by people, so he shrugged, and pressed his way into the construction zone, which had evidently been abandoned for the day. The door gave way into a dark, empty concrete room.

“Perfect!” Percy exclaimed as the door shut behind the pair, “So, not that I’m not happy to see you Piper, but what brings you to Manhattan this time of year?” He asked inquisitively.

“I,” she heaved, shutting her eyes tightly.

“You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to,” Percy hastily said, even if he really did want to know.

“I broke up with Jason,” she said firmly, eyes still closed.

“Why-What?” Percy asked incredulously, “You guys were so good together all summer, oh my gods, did he cheat on you, he better not have cheated because that’s really bad-”

Percy’s ramble was cut off by Piper, who sank her way onto the floor as she admitted, “No, it was all me, he was the perfect boyfriend,”

“Oh fuck, Piper, you cheated on Jason?” Percy yelped, yes Piper was one of his friends, but so was Jason, and if he had to pick, he would side with the one who had not committed infidelity. 

“What?” she yelled at him, “No, of course not, it just wasn’t the same as it had been, on the Argo II, and, we weren’t the same, and it needed to end,”

“I’m sorry Piper,” he said mournfully, “I’m honestly not trying to brag, but I don’t know what that feels like, how can I help, the only thing I have on me is my pen,”

“It’s fine,” she exhaled, “I figured, so I brought stuff, I just need a good listener,”

“That,” he nodded, “I can do.”

She reached into her coat and pulled out the familiar silver tin, which usually held precious nugs, but instead held neatly rolled joints in a line, with printed little strawberries on the thin wrap. 

“What is this stuff?” he asked not really having much experience with anything outside the realm of his pen, standard joints, or blunts.

“It’s flavored,” she explained, “called Juicy Jay’s.”

“What, like the rapper?” he started to laugh, “Like the one in Katy Perry’s song?”

“No,” she scowled at him, jerking him back to the reality of why they were there in the first place, “makes it taste better, this one’s strawberry,”

She flicked on her lighter, wanting to focus on the task at hand instead of her feelings. After she passed one to Percy, she took a deep inhale, and promptly fell onto her back, staring at the dingy concrete above her head. 

“I thought that we had something, something special. Like you and Annabeth have. Everything was just so easy when we were on the quest, like, we had no time to think about our relationship, only about you know, not dying. But then, when we went to California to find Leo, I realized that we didn’t really know each other at all. When things started to settle down, it was just so obvious how different we are. He’s in all these crazy hard classes, just for fun, and he’s never been to high school, so he wanted to focus on that. It’s hard enough to be in a relationship, but my mom’s the fucking goddess of love, like, no pressure,” she finished her rant with another large sigh, and remorsefully took a drag.

Percy sat up next to her, wondering how he should respond, he had had his fair share of relationship struggles, but that was before, and Annabeth was his best friend before they even realized that they had feelings for each other. And, while the circumstances around him and Annabeth had certainly never been easy, once they started dating, their actual relationship had been pretty much perfect, because they knew each other, better than anyone else. 

“I think,” Percy started, blowing out a ring, “that you and Jason don’t know how to be friends first. Annabeth and I, she’s my soulmate, but she was my best friend for four years before we started dating, and our first kiss wasn’t until three years into knowing each other. I think you two might just need to learn how to be friends before you focus on all the messy stuff that comes with dating. My advice? Just be friends for now, it might be painful, but, that’s how you’ll know if you two are meant to be together.”

Piper looked over at him, she could feel the buzz starting to flow into her body, her brain starting to go a little less haywire, time slowing down. She mulled over Percy’s advice, pausing only to inhale, exhale. It was nearly half an hour before she responded,

“What if we aren’t meant to be together? Even as friends?”

“Do you love him?” Percy said quietly

Piper sucked in sharply, she wanted to blurt out yes, of-fucking-course, you idiot, that’s why it hurts so much, but she paused, thinking it over deeply. With a sudden realization, the answer popped unwelcomely into her brain, “I don’t even know how to love somebody. I thought I did.”

“Then there’s your answer,” Percy said wisely, “Be friends, and if you are meant to be, you’ll be.”

Hours later, as she rode the taxi into Long Island, she thought about Percy’s words, _if you are meant to be, you’ll be_ , with resounding confidence, she straightened her back,   
_Well Jason Grace_ , she almost chuckled out loud, _get ready for me to be a damn good friend_.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed yet another one-shot that I wrote at 2 in the morning in one sitting without checking it like, at all. Please let me know if it's painfully obvious that I don't smoke, but in my defense, I did do a lot of research so I'm not completely in the dark. R+R much appreciated! Did you think Rick did a good job of explaining Piper and Jason's break up? I think he did okay, considering it wasn't really the biggest problem for Apollo, who like a god, doesn't really care about mortal relationships, but I'd love to hear your opinions!


End file.
